Vending machines are used in a wide range of locations to vend a wide variety of products to consumers. A selection of different products is typically stored in a product storage area of the vending machine at vertically spaced product storage locations which are positioned one above the other. Each vertically spaced product storage location normally has an array of substantially horizontal files of products extending between the front and rear of the vending machine and positioned adjacent to each other across the width of the vending machine.
The products in each horizontal file are arranged on a product support, such as a shelf or magazine, and the products are normally dispensed from each file at the front, for example by a pusher or by a spiral drive. After a product has been selected and purchased by a customer, for example using a selection device such as a keypad on the front of the vending machine, it is dispensed from the appropriate one of the horizontal files in the product storage area and is delivered to a product collection area where it can be collected by the customer.
The product collection area is normally positioned below the product storage area towards the bottom of the vending machine and products are often delivered to the product collection area by simply allowing a dispensed product to fall under the influence of gravity. Allowing products to fall in this way, in a relatively uncontrolled manner, can be problematic particularly when the products are delicate and especially when the products are stored at product storage locations at an upper region of the product storage area towards the top of the vending machine. In the case of carbonated beverages stored in cans or bottles for example, if a dispensed can or bottle is simply allowed to fall under the influence of gravity from a product storage location at an upper region of the product storage area into the product collection area at the bottom of the vending machine, the carbonated beverage will be agitated and will tend to fizz excessively if the can or bottle is opened immediately. The customer may, therefore, have to wait for a short time before they can consume the carbonated beverage.
One way of addressing this problem is to provide a combination vending machine in which products such as snack foods and confectionery are stored at the product storage locations in the upper region of the product storage area whilst carbonated beverages are stored at the product storage locations in the lower region of the product storage area, for example on the two lowest shelves or magazines. Because a carbonated beverage only has to fall a short distance into the product collection area when it is released from a relatively low product storage location, it is only minimally agitated and therefore tends not to fizz excessively when opened immediately after purchase. This solution is, however, only feasible if the vending machine is sited in a location where both snack foods/confectionery products and carbonated beverages are likely to be consumed.
Another way of addressing this problem is to use an xyz-picker to individually retrieve a purchased product such as a carbonated drink from one of the product storage locations in the product storage area and to deliver it in a controlled manner to the product collection area. Known xyz-pickers, and hence the vending machines into which they are incorporated, tend to be complex and expensive and this can make them an unattractive proposition.
There is, therefore, a need for an improved product transport mechanism for a vending machine which overcomes the disadvantages mentioned above.